Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the preparation and subsequent processing of mail in the United States and its territories. More specifically, the invention focuses on means to apply postage to envelopes, mailing labels, and flyers using an ordinary personal computer and printer (laser, inkjet or matrix).
The invention also provides a convenient method to purchase U.S. postage via phone/modem, the ability to maintain a computerized account of postage expenditures, and provisions for remote electronic audit functions by the U.S.PS Inspection Service.
Importantly, the invention is integrated with an existing mail management software product called Envelope Manager which has the ability to obtain ZIP+4 information using conventional phone lines, track and maintain the age/currency of stored ZIP+4 information, print a POSTNET bar code, print a FIM (Facing Identification Mark), and compute an appropriate discount for automation-readable mail.